Iran Claims It Can Govern Country Without Relying On Oil Revenue

A month after the U.S. sanctions on Iran’s oil snapped back, the Islamic Republic continues to claim with defiant tone that the United States won’t be able to choke off all its oil exports and that the Iranian government can manage the country even without relying on oil export revenues.

Reliance on oil revenues in Iran’s budget for the next financial year beginning in March 2019 is no more than 25 percent, Iranian Fars news agency quoted Iran’s First Vice-President Eshaq Jahangiri as saying on Tuesday.

“We insisted that the (next year) budget be devised and sent to the parliament in due time to send this message to inside and outside the country that Iran can be managed without reliance on oil revenues,” Jahangiri said.

Iran assumes in its budget bill for next year that oil exports will be above 1 million bpd, according to the news service of its oil ministry.

According to U.S. estimates, oil sales account for 80 percent of all of Iran’s revenues.

Iranian oil exports are set to drop off very soon, Special Representative for Iran Brian Hook said at a press briefing last week. The ‘maximum pressure’ campaign of the U.S. is going after the money, as 80 percent of Iran’s revenue comes from oil exports, Hook said.

“The United States said it would stop Iran’s oil export and business relations, making Iran isolated, but it could not do it and it won’t be able to sever our relations with the peoples of the region,” Rouhani said in an address on Tuesday.

“We will sell our oil and they can’t stop us from doing this, said Rouhani adding, “If the US wants to stop our oil sales, no oil will be exported from the Persian Gulf,” according to Rouhani’s speech as carried by the official website of the Iranian President.